Which Soaps Divined you Childhood?

[YRfan23]

I apologize if there is a thread like this already, but I guess I'm asking because I work in a elementary school and every once in a while I have a feeling of Nostalgia as I watch the kids walk by particularly 4th through 6th graders........I just can't help but get reminded of the days when I would come home from school and watch Passions, which my dad always taped for me before I learned how to do it myself.......there was always something so comforting about coming home after a long day of school, fixing yourself a snack and watching your favorite soap which you taped (or had someone else tape) everyday.......... I was so into Passions because I loved the crazy storylines and supernatural aspects, and I even started taping Days as well because of some of the crazy stuff they also had on the show......I feel like those two NBC soaps at the time were really more appropriate for my generation growing up because I always thought they targeted a younger audience....I love Y&R/B&B don't get me wrong, but they are more "older audience" oriented........

So yeah that's why I thought I asked, because seeing those kids just makes me wish it was 2000-2005 again when I was really into Days/Passions......it's kind of sad that kids these days probably have know idea what a soap even is, not that there is many to choose to watch these days and I know Days and Passions during that time frame weren't exactly the best soaps on tv, but I guess I just miss the days when I was entertained as a pre-teen/early teen and wasn't aware of soap politics.

[BKuzak]

Oh this is fun! I actually started watching General Hospital first but eventually One Life To Live was my "go to" soap. My grandfather picked me up from grade school several days a week and i would go to his house and my grandmother would be watching her soaps. She had watched them since they first aired. I used to just go into another room and wait for General Hospital but then i got hooked on One Life. By the time i hit middle school, I somehow was comming home on my own (probably a bus) and i would run to watch the rest of One Life. I beleive school let out at two but if i rushed, i could have the TV on before 2:30 hit. It was during Viki's DID so i was glued from then on.

[Khan]

Three soaps defined my childhood: AMC, GUIDING LIGHT and KNOTS LANDING. Mama Khan and I watched both shows everyday (either "live" or on VCR), and if Thursday night went by and I didn't get to watch KL, my weekend was wrecked.

[applcin]

I watched the ABC lineup when I could. AMC was my first soap. Eddie Dorrance was my first soap murder.

When I was in middle school, I started to watch GH and the very first episode I saw was a good one--the one where Scotty had just found out about Luke and Laura and he goes aboard Frank Smith's yacht and punches Luke overboard, setting off L & L's first on-the-run story. I was hooked. I ran home from school the two days of L & L's wedding.

I remember starting with OLTL and seeing big old (well, not so old then) Asa throwing a huge birthday barbecue for Samantha Vernon, much to the dismay of his mistress, Mimi King. The Buchanan cowboys became a big draw for me for that show. Viki and Tina were living in the gatehouse and Viki was in something of a triangle with Clint and Ted Clayton while Tina was trying to bed Johnny Drummond.

Later on, on EON, when they killed off Larkin Malloy's character (Jeff Brown aka faux-Sky) I cried my eyes out because I didn't want him to leave the show. Needless to say, I was thrilled when he was brought back as the real Sky. (Aaah, the days before the internet and the previews...).

And...even though I didn't consciously watch AW as a child, my mother did before she went back to work and I ended up with a strong imprint of Douglass Watson's voice on my memory. I always remembered that voice from then on as sort of the ideal benevolent, fatherly voice. I did end up watching AW (and Days and GL) in my 20s.

I'm still hoping for some outlet somewhere (online or off) to please stream the classic shows (and I mean real classic, not 5 years ago).

[DaytimeFan]

AW was the soap of my childhood. My mom watched it from its first episode to its last and never strayed from it. There are so many voices from actors on that show that are synonymous with childhood: Victoria Wyndham, Douglass Watson, Beverlee McKinsey, Linda Dano, Anna Stuart, Stephen Schnetzer...and let's not even talk about the opening credits. What a soap.

[All My Shadows]

CBS Daytime in the 1990s. I can't look at Bob Barker, Melody Thomas Scott, John McCook, Kathryn Hays, or Kim Zimmer (among countless others) without being sent back to that era, at least momentarily.

[Bright Eyes]

I was a morning kid in kindergarten and instead of going the f*ck to sleep for my afternoon nap, I stayed up and watched DAYS with my mom. And though I never really paid attention to Y&R when she watched it, I always became transfixed when Jess Walton's lengthful mane and smoky voice arrived upon the screen.

[NothinButAttitude]

Guiding Light, As the World Turns, & Another World.

YR & BB too but the P&G soaps more.

[cassadine1991]

AMC, OLTL, GH, PC

[quartermainefan]

I started watching soaps as a teenager and for me it was GH and then AMC. Palmer Courtlandt was my favorite soap character and remains so to this day. The story that got me hooked on GH was the Sword of Malkuth, a magical sword once held by Alexander The Great and the villains wanted it and Luke stopped them.

[Graham]

AMC *was* high school for me. Such a huge part of my life back then. I have just about every episode of the baby switch on VHS and I watch one from time to time. MMT gets a lot of [!@#$%^&*] but she hooked me.

[jam6242]

I was one of those kids who ran home from school to watch Dark Shadows in the 60s so that would be my main childhood soap (although I had watched Never Too Young before DS replaced it). I always watched it with my sister, who was severely disabled so that was one of the few things we could do together. She was into the British Invasion at the time so she always wanted her afternoon tea to drink during DS, lol. My friends and I would make up games based on the DS storylines. I remember throwing sticks and pretending they were the I-Ching. In my tweens and teens in the 70s, Days was my top soap (although I watched others). Whenever Doug sang "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World" to Julie, I would look at my mom and say, "she is too!" So wanted to look like her (would still like to, lol).

[DRW50]

You probably did better at I Ching than most of the characters on the show did...

[DRW50]

I mostly watched the CBS soaps. I watched Y&R and B&B as something to watch and to roll my eyes at and yell at the screen over (although I enjoyed Jill, Katherine, Sally, etc.). I saw GL and ATWT as more of people I cared about and felt invested in. I'm not sure I've ever felt as invested in any other soaps, probably never will.

[jam6242]

LOL, so true! But we didn't know any better then.